I know I can be very insulting, but lately I am trying to get better at not doing that. I have read a number of your post and though I don't always agree with them I do understand where you are coming from. Autism can be hard but with support and your own strength many road blocks can be passed. I know this from my own experiences as I was classified as moderate to Severely Autistic and wasn't expected to ever speak by the medical professionals of the mid 1990's. I didn't say a word until I was nearly 5 years old and I really was sensitive to sounds and touch. I had to more or less torture myself to numb this effect out. I didn't go quite as far as the guy in the accountant movie did but it still wasn't easy as it took many years. I misread people often and make quite the interesting blunders but I have learned to pick myself back up and move forward even if it's hard. Most of what I know about being social is artificial because it never came naturally to me like it does for other people.
Thank you for sharing! I am Moderately Autistic. I can communicate -- but not enough to find a job. Thus I depend on my parents. Fortunately they do support me. In USA most disabled people are left to fend for themselves.
While I appreciate the nod - you know the really funny thing? I support the right to own guns. I'm a life-long hunter. I spent much of my youth working on a cattle ranch. I've never taken a dime of welfare or unemployment and have worked steadily for 31 years now. I believe in balanced budgets. I believe in most instances, private business is better than government run businesses. I voted for Reagan (the first time) and have never, ever voted for a Clinton ... Yet on these boards, I am considered a "lefty". Oh, well.
People call me a conservative all the time, and I'm nothing of the sort. I think you're a good poster. Enjoy people who push back professionally.
Depends where on the spectrum you are. Aspies are probably geniuses whereas ADHD-folks are just normal boys. It is terrifying how they are stuffing, mainly, kids and teenagers with small doses of amphetamine and other heavy drugs (SSRI) without any reason.
Oh Frodders I had to laugh. This post was the start of a sequence where they really wound you up. You kept feeding them and the churlishness you got back just increased exponentially. I know how it happens - I've been there! They wear these "wind-ups" as badge of honour. It's why they come here (the only reason) and it explains everything. Leo started the thread based on a "let's all think of our fave posters" and had the generosity of spirit to suspend hostilities and reach out to all shades of opinion. It was pretty clear that it was not "which posters do you agree with the most?". Some conservatives took it in good spirit and reached across the aisle. But a lot of the nasty brigade just listed their ideological friends with the most ludicrous twaddle about well reasoned arguments supported by facts (something that was a kind of doublethink as far as I could make out). The lack of generosity of spirit is what marks these people out - you should not be surprised! The lack of curiosity they have - which means they avoid reading or looking at sources of knowledge and opinion they disagree with - is why we see them as totalitarian ideologues. There is a strong lack of empathy which is what is scary and infuriating, an inability to put themselves in someone's shoes who does not think like them or have the same experience as them. But frodders, it is precisely this churlishness which fires our liberalism to ensure these types do not win and usher in a new Dark Ages. Remember that. Conservatives who reach out are probably democrats. Part of the workings of our liberal democracies. Ultimately people who are on the same side when the good versus evil questions come to test us. Those who lack generosity are insecure damaged people living their neuroses through the conservative movement, and there seem to be millions of them. There are some liberals and socialists like that too, remember. And on the Left exactly these types are the ones who will take away freedom for the particular obsessive causes they have: the soulless Stalinists who drain away the colour from the vision of the world we have. You frodly are of course my favourite: someone I always agree with, particularly on football, and therefore one of the most brilliant, witty, logical, incisive, educated, insightful, precise, erudite, wise posters that this forum has. You always back up your opinions with facts that are so well researched that I think you must have a whole political think tank working on your behalf. Your logic reminds me of Hegel or even Aristotle or Plato, it is so intricately weaved. Your knowledge and wisdom know no bounds, nay, not even the ends of the Earth. What's more you give hell to those conservatives with slapdowns so vicious that they have to go back squeaking to smartmouthwoman whenever you have finished them and ground them to dust, yes ha! So funny to watch them crying in the gutter after you have finished with them. But most of all you are my fave because you agree with me on everything and I like that because I can't stand anyone who disagrees with me on anything. I will include Leo here, as he is just far too nice for my liking and is so dangerously dodgily deviant on a whole load of liberal issues that I am not sure I can trust him. I still like him though, just to prove what a tolerant amazing and fair minded person I really am. Seriously though, I, like you, crave debate with educated conservatives. Eighty Deuce is a red-blooded fair minded old school conservative and I would count him as a web-friend. Albert de Salvo is even more awesome - original and thought provoking . Ostap Bender is a bit cruel to spoof conservatism so meanly, but his satire is a work of genius in the spirit of his muse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostap_Bender. He's even in their little club, he's so convincing! (Oh, as an aside SmartMouthWoman is also a very nice person who would probably be great fun in the real world, and she has a great forum name). I don't post here much but I have my flurries. You are seemingly the same. The place seems deserted now. All the old names have gone. But if you see this post in a few months or so take care buddy! But apart from Sadanie no one likes me. Oderint dum metuant, oderint dum metuant ...that's the way to look at it my friend. YNWA
those who rarely venture outside their Prog enclaves (physically or mentally) are flumoxed by the concept of intellectual conservatives. eyes glaze over, and silence ensues. it's precisely the same response you see in evangelists who were never told, nor ever imagined, they'd encounter decent and moral atheists. if the received orthodoxy is that all conservatives are stupider than dirt, the ideologue sees no need for a reasoned response to such a thing. I suspect that the mind of the Prog experiences a little cognitive dissonance meltdown, on such occasions.
Thank you, I value reading your perspective as well. You are among the most civil of the liberal side on the board.
I don't really have favorites, except for anyone who will really engage in an extended discussion respectfully. And all the females on PF are my favorites, because ... um ... just because.
I've never blushed so much in my entire life!! The admiration if mutual. I come here a little bit now, but don't really see the value in butting my head against the wall repeatedly. No one is here to exchange ideas, they are here to stand on a platform and shout their ideas to the world. It matters not if their ideas are well founded, well researched, and thoughtful. They simply know they are right, now matter how wrong they are. So I try my best to get involved here in a time of serious political crisis across the globe, but there just seem to be much better things I could do with my time.... like watching the great man Jurgen Klopp on youtube or reading actually insightful political commentary elsewhere.
Problem is there are lots of smart folks here without actual intelligence. It requires intelligence to recognize that your belief might actually be wrong.